Xiaomi has finally released its long-awaited flagship piece, the Mi-5, at both the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona and China's capital Beijing. It was the first time the company live-streamed the event globally, as more and more domestic players try to tap into the global market, against the backdrop of an increasingly saturated one at home.
It's a campaign to market phones, not just the latest or the most fancy, but also through the public speaking skills of a company founder.
"It's curved and fits well with the hand. The whole phone feels very good in the hand. Very light," Lei Jun, founder of Xiaomi, said.
The new Xiaomi 5 features a glass or porcelain body and is powered by Qualcomm's flagship processor, the Snapdragon 820, and also some NFC functionality, the technology behind Apple's killer function Apple Pay.
Xiaomi is famous for holding multiple press conferences every year, But this one seems to be the most eagerly awaited one. After the Mi-4 was released in 2014, there was no sign of the Mi-5 until just after the recent Lunar New Year.
According to market research firm Canalys, in 2015, China's smartphone market grew only two percent, it's slowest-ever growth-rate. The blue ocean market just a few years ago has quickly matured.
For the whole of 2015, Xiaomi claimed 15% of China's market share, Huawei was on its heels at 14.7% while one in eight smartphones were Apple.
Last year, Xiaomi missed its sales target of 80 million, while Huawei sold more than 100 million phones globally.
So could this new phone be a game changer?
"We don't care too much about its market performance. We care about if there are enough Xiaomi fans who like our product. I went to the experience area after the press conference. I feel people highly value the phone. I feel happy about it," Lei said.
And one strategy is exploring new waters. Xiaomi headed out to countries like Russia, Turkey, and India.
ZTE's nubia is already well received in America and Germany. And Huawei, a veteran in the telecom sector, is just next to Samsung in Europe.
"We see the Indian market as a local market. We must do things well there. As for other countries, we need to take time and take things step by step. But our focus this year is to do a good job in the Indian market."
Looks like the smartphone market drama has just started.
